The Eternal Castle Remastered Review
From HD remasters in Definitive Edition, from Deluxe Edition to high definition ports, the video game industry is going in circles. At the feet of the Goliath, David looks and copies in more clever. Thus, the independent Italian video game scene appropriates the concept and regurgitates it ... the real false remaster of a pseudo-video game released in 1987. And why not!
The new UFO signed Leonard Menchiari therefore pays a real tribute to the work of titan shot by all these video game programmers of the late 80s who had to combine with a few kilobytes of memory on a stalling microcomputer, while leaving the free space for artists who make them dream of playing by juggling between the 6 palettes of 4 colors available on a CGA monitor. All the art at the time consisted in bringing a work on one or two 5 "1/4 floppy disks. A crazy job and when we see the creativity of the catalogs of late Silmarils or the mythical Loriciel, we can only have respect for these mercenaries! In a way, remembering the player The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] is the most vibrant example, despite a host of flaws.
As if
It doesn't take 5 minutes to figure out where the rital wants to take us. There is Prince of Persia, big pieces of Flashback, a few broken pieces of Another World and even a hint of Heart of Darkness in his game. The developer doesn't even hide it and it's practical for him, all he has to do is bend down and happily tap into more than 30 years of platformers to build his own cinematic platformer at a lower cost. Above all, this allows him not to waste too much time on the gameplay to focus on what he can do best: adult and realistic pixel art. Leonard is not at his first attempt in the matter, he even ended up coming out in early access last year his simulator of yellow vests, RIOT: Civil Unrest. The title has a sublime artistic direction, extremely detailed and properly animated. Here it goes further, even if it unfortunately reproduces the same errors.
Visually, we have rarely seen more impressive than this Eternal Castle. Mixing pure pixel-art and pre-rendered 3D sequences and / or filmed before being roughly rotoscoped with a bill hook, the game is incredibly beautiful. Each plan is meticulously worked, orchestrated to highlight each of the elements that compose it. The light that comes to clean each of the 4-color palettes used to depict the scenes always strikes just right, creating false shadows or accentuating the traits of the hero, enemies and decorations in post-apocalyptic CGA panoramas typical of the 70s. is simply stunning. The hero's animations are realistic and successful, perfectly rendering on the screen the feeling of power and impact when using the different weapons. In addition, the title can boast of offering unique shots (the wild nightclub, the surroundings of the manor swept by the rain, the arrival at the eternal castle) as we would like to see more often in the video game.
The scenario is strongly inspired by the science fiction cinematic nanars of the time. At the dawn of the 22nd century, most humans left a defiled Earth to settle in orbiting colonies. Resources are running out and reckless explorers are taking trips to the planet to recover enough to power the gigantic space stations. The hero has not heard from his friend for weeks, he knows she is in danger there and he must do everything to find her, even if he knows that it will probably be a suicide mission. No sooner has he crossed the atmosphere than his ship is the target of bandits and he must crash into an emergency in desert massifs. Alone, he must first gather 4 orbs of energy to restore his ship before setting off to attack the eternal castle to deliver his beauty.
The player will therefore hunt in each of the three levels that make up the game and thus exploit all the possibilities of gameplay. He will take part in an urban war in the outskirts of a forgotten city, going from barricade to barricade using all the firearms available. He can also choose to make his way discreetly through the ruins of a temple, using mainly edged weapons, or discover the abominations created in the secret laboratory located under an old mansion. The gameplay is typical of the genre, so expect to have to do with a virtual input-lag added to make "style" (the famous extra animation frames that made you crazy on Prince of Persia or Another World), maneuverability while straight from beyond the grave (the roll-balls, the squatting shot and the length of the jumps depending on the pace of the Flashback character), etc.
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